Sentience

In 2025, we are letting the pigs out! 🐷
We are launching a new federal popular initiative demanding outdoor access for all animals in agriculture. This new initiative has the potential to shape the discourse in Switzerland for years to come.

In December, every donation counts twice
From now until the end of December, every donation will be doubled by generous donors — up to a total of 50,000 CHF. This means 10 CHF becomes 20 CHF, and 50 CHF becomes 100 CHF.

Sonoma County’s Measure J: Echoes of Switzerland’s Factory Farming Vote
Recent animal welfare initiatives in Sonoma County, CA, and Switzerland highlight the resilience of grassroots efforts in challenging entrenched interests and promoting more ethical standards.

END preprogrammed suffering: together for Swiss broiler chickens
Coop, Migros, it is high time that we talk. Between the two of you, you are responsible for nearly 80% of meat sales in Switzerland. You therefore bear a critical responsibility for the alarming growth of the poultry industry. The number of...

Logbook : the life of an intensively farmed chicken
A broiler chicken’s weight increases 33 times over its short life. In Switzerland, nearly 80 million broiler chickens are slaughtered each year, 92% of which are raised in intensive aviculture. Their suffering is pre-programmed, encoded in their...

Actions, not words: Help us end preprogrammed suffering NOW!
8 percent of chickens ever see the light of day during their lives. Worse, 92 percent of all chickens belong to so-called “high-performance breeds”, where suffering is genetically preprogrammed. Coop and Migros have the power to stop this trend.

The “invisible” animals need your help
Acknowledging the capacity for suffering as a crucial moral criterion is the core concern of Sentience. Therefore, we aim to give a voice to those animals whose well-being receives no attention in our society - the “invisible” animals.

We need a strong counterweight
The significant gains made by the agricultural lobby in the parliamentary elections of autumn 2023 pushed sustainable Swiss agriculture with location-adapted food production even further into the distant future.

Annual Report 2023
The landmark votes on the Primate Initiative and the Initiative to Abolish Factory Farming in 2022 sparked significant attention and much-needed discussions. Last year, we were able to build on this momentum and advance our vision with broad support.

Interspecies diplomacy: ever a possibility? Decoding
Despite the current Swiss political scene, the environmental emergency continues, and its impact on all beings is evermore pressing. And so, we must start now to think about what engaging diplomatically with non-human animals will look like.

One donation, double the impact ✊
Our voice for the animals is more important than ever. Until the end of December, every donation to Sentience will be doubled. For you, this means: one donation, double the impact!

A strong alliance for animals
In collaboration with organizations that supported the initiative to abolish factory farming last year, we devoted two days to exploring ways to enhance the well-being of animals in Swiss agriculture.

Sentience becomes the hundredth member of the Open Wing Alliance
Sentience is the first Swiss organization to join the alliance, which was founded in 2016. In doing so, our organization is committing to become an even stronger advocate for the interests of chickens at home and abroad in the future.

Key Learnings 2022
Both of our initiatives represented landmark achievements for Sentience. They shaped the public discourse in 2022 and contributed to the slow inculcation of animal ethics into mainstream society. Yet, there is room for improvement.

Annual Report 2022
The past year was a huge milestone in the recent history of our association. With the Primate Initiative in Basel and the national referendum on factory farming, two proposals of historical importance came to the ballot box.